Buhari deserves to be voted in 2019 for delivering on his promises to tackle insecurity, fight corruption and revamp the economy – Lai Mohammed

Mr. Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, on Tuesday in Abuja at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) flagship programme, said that President Muhammadu Buhari has delivered on his campaign promises and deserves to be voted in 2019.

Lai said that President Buhari had promised to tackle insecurity, fight corruption and revamp the economy.

“Many people did not believe that we could hold inauguration ceremony at the Eagle Square because, until we came, the Eagle Square had not been used for several years.

“As Buhari was being sworn-in, 20 out of the 27 Local Government in Borno state and another four Local Governments in Adamawa state were under the effective control and occupation of Boko Haram.

“Three and half years later, I can say without any fear of contradiction that not even an inch of our territory today is under the control of Boko Haram,” he said.

The minister said that the economy had been revamped through the social investment programmes (N-power, Conditional Cash Transfer and School feeding programme).

“Under the N-power, we have employed over half a million unemployed graduate, under the conditional cash transfer, we pay a stipend of N5,000 to 297,000 most vulnerable households monthly,” he added.

Regarding fighting corruption, Mr. Lai said that Nigerians should not view it from the arrest, prosecution and jailing of corrupt individuals, but to rather see the measures put in place to ensure transparency in governance especially the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

“We did not invent the TSA,” he admitted, “we met it but before we came, it was haphazardly implemented with government having over 22000 accounts in various banks.’’

“Between 2015 and today, N8.9 trillion has gone through the TSA and that has made possible for government to know the money it has at any given time and where to allocate it,” he added.

He further noted that the introduction of the whistle blowing policy had led to the recovery of N13.8billion in tax evasion and additional recovery of N7.8billion, $378million and 27,200pounds.